Smoke and mirrors
by Senuna
Summary: After Mako nearly sacrificed his life in the battle of Republic City, Bolin has a hard time letting it go. Missing scene of LOK s04e12, set before and after the creation of the new Spirit Portal. Rated T for language amidst arguing brothers.


**Disclaimer:** Technically, not mine. Emotionally, definitely mine. ****

 **Summary:** After Mako nearly sacrificed his life in the battle of Republic City, Bolin has a hard time letting it go. Missing scene of LOK s04e12, set before and after the creation of the new Spirit Portal. Rated T for language amidst arguing brothers.

* * *

 **Smoke and mirrors**

 _The first of his senses to be stimulated was smell.  
_

 _It was the sweet scent of barbecued meat, much like the dishes they sold down their street at that cheap vendor. His saliva glands responded immediately and he swallowed thickly. Slowly, his other senses tuned back in, and he allowed himself to feel the cold metal beneath him and the thunderous applause that was his heartbeat against his chest. He felt exhausted but at peace, and he half expected to wake up on the couch in their attic after a night out, while Mako prepared bacon and eggs in the kitchen. Where was his brother anyway?_

 _Curious, Bolin carefully cracked one eye open. Smoke and stone-grey metal seemed to wink back at him, and it took his muddled brain only a second to catch up._

Kuvira. Modified vines. Lightning.

"Mako!"

 _His brother's name escaped his throat in a strangled cry, and Bolin fought gravity to push himself upwards to orientate himself. His head swam with the speed of his movement, and his left arm shot out to balance himself. When Bolin's fingers brushed fabric, it took one sliver of light escaping through the hull of the metal roof to locate the broken body of his sibling lying almost a foot away._

 _"No. No, no, no Mako, hey, wake up," Bolin's own voice echoed quietly in their steel prison. He crawled closer to his sibling, his chest tightening as if one of Kuvira's vines had snaked its way across his chest. Leaning over his brother, he could now see the burns marring the skin of Mako's left arm, and smell the sickly sweet scent that protruded from the wounds. After two more breaths, Bolin twisted his body away from his brother before his rebelling stomach emptied itself.  
_

* * *

"Bro. Bolin. _Bolin,_ " Mako annoyed voice pierced through Bolin's memory, and his head shot up. Mako was seated on the white sheets of the hospital bed, his legs swinging impatiently. A nurse was fiddling with a long line connected to Mako's arm. Bolin's eyes involuntarily traced the tube, up and up, until they registered the words _NaCl 0.9%_. From his position on the wooden chair opposite Mako, the line looked at least a meter long.

"She asked you a question Bo. Whether you remember how we ended up on the platform."

"I just want to make sure we're not missing anything," the nurse added softly, straightening from her crouched position. A blue Northern Tribe necklace rested on her collar bones, and Bolin counted the beads in his head while his lips replayed fragments of a memory.

"I was climbing down, carrying Mako and all of a sudden there was this beaming light and...we fell, I guess."

The nurse nodded, but her eyes looked disappointed by this lack of information. She mumbled something to Mako about coming back later, and disappeared behind the faded curtains. If it weren't for the sounds of footsteps and low voices behind their little bubble, it almost felt like they were alone again. Like the entire left wing of the hospital didn't exist, nor mattered. It was just him and his brother, and Bolin figured that if he could hold onto that feeling as long as possible, he wouldn't have to think about everything else that had happened.

"Hey, you alright, bro?" Mako offered quietly. Bolin shrugged and forced his mouth to grin. "Yeah, just tired. I'll be alright."

* * *

 _Bolin wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his jacket, spitting in the abyss below to clear his mouth. His muscles and stomach ached when he turned back to his brother, but all that pain dissolved when Bolin's trembling hand reached out to press two digits to the hollow of Mako's throat._

 _A dry sob echoed in his chest when a pulse fluttered against his fingers._

 _"Hey, alright, you're gonna be alright, okay? Mako?" Bolin whispered, his throat raw. Mako's head was still bent backwards in an awkward position, and Bolin hooked his hands underneath his brother's armpits to hoist him onto the metal platform. The beam of light overhead caught Mako's pale face. He looked like a shell of his brother, and if Bolin didn't know any better he would think that the vine had drained the life out of his sibling._

 _They needed help._ Mako _needed help. But instead of moving, Bolin could only sit there, paralyzed, his gaze fixated on the lightning imprinted on his brother's skin._

* * *

"It's not as bad as it looks, bro," Mako said, shrugging his good shoulder. "Healer said there will be no permanent damage, except a scar, of course."

"Right," Bolin swallowed, pulling his eyes away from burned skin and redirecting them to his brother's face. Some color had returned to his cheeks, and while he looked bone-tired his jaw was no longer clenched tightly with pain. He almost looked comfortable, _normal_ , and it eased some of the tension that had settled in Bolin's chest.

"And the ladies dig scars, right?" Mako grinned, his voice teasing. Bolin hummed in affirmation, and they lapsed back into silence. His brother's lips pressed together in a tight line. Bolin knew that face all too well, the _You're pissing me off Bro_ look, and he braced himself for the oncoming lecture.

Then the curtains moved, and Bolin breathed out slowly. Their nurse was back, and her chatter filled the silence as she was seemingly unaware of the building tension between the two brothers. Something about the doctor's busy schedule and Mako's pain level on a scale of one to ten, and as she talked, Bolin couldn't stop his mind from wandering again.

He leaned back in his chair. Mako's jacket was draped across the wooden back, and the coin-shaped golden buttons gently poked in his shoulder blades.

* * *

 _He started to undo the buttons of Mako's vest._

 _In the beginning of his pro-bending career, Bolin had followed an obligatory first-aid course. He vaguely remembered the steps, and he was sure he had already skipped a couple, but now his focus was solely on his brother's vital functions._

 _C-spine, burns, arterial bleeding, breathing. He remembered that much._

 _"Almost like a typical night out, right Bro?" Bolin mumbled, fighting to keep his voice light and steady. Mako was an incredible lightweight, despite popular believe, and on the rare occasion they went out it was usually Bolin who had to carry him to bed and rid him of his shirt and shoes._

 _Which was exactly why Mako never drank._

 _His own breath in his throat, Bolin tipped Mako's head back with both hands and leaned forward._ Listen, look, and feel. _The healer's words echoed in his head, and when Bolin felt the soft breeze of air and saw the quiet motion of his sibling's torso, he moved on to the next problem._

 _Unfortunately, Bolin had_ no clue at all _how to treat burns._

 _During their childhood Mako had suffered several burns, either during pro-bending or scuffles on the streets, but those injuries had never been major enough to leave any permanent damage. On numerous occasions, Bolin had seen him stuck underneath the sink with whatever limb had been licked with fire, and he was always his usually grumpy self after a couple of days._

 _"Lava-bender! I just_ had _to be a lava-bender, right?!" Bolin exclaimed, more to the metal hull than to himself. Frustration welled up in his throat and Bolin forced himself to take a deep breath. He just needed to stay calm, and get his brother out of here as quickly as possible. There had to be waterbenders outside who could help them._

 _Underneath his uniform, Mako looked mostly undamaged, save for a couple of bruises littering the left side of his ribs. Bolin carefully started to redo the buttons of the vest, partly because he didn't want Mako to get hypothermia and also because his brother was a ginormous prude. His own fingers were starting to get cold and Bolin struggled with the last button below his brothers throat._

 _Unexpectedly, Mako groaned, and Bolin screamed like a little girl._

 _"Spirits, Bolin, shh. My head. Was that really necessary?"_

 _Bolin cleared his throat, feeling his cheeks heat up in response. He watched how Mako slowly rubbed his head with his right arm, his left still lying motionless by his side. His brother groaned again, a quiet and definitely more annoyed sound than earlier, and he extended his good arm. Bolin stared back, dumb-founded._

 _"Help me up, will ya?" Mako rasped, eyeing his little brother tiredly._

 _"Right! Right, sorry,"_ _Bolin grasped Mako's right hand, and with his other hand curling around his brother's shoulder blade, he pulled him upwards. Immediately, Mako's eyes clouded with pain and his breathing turned shallow. Bolin didn't dare release his grip until Mako was no longer panting_.

 _"You alright, Bo?" Mako asked, his eyes skipping worriedly over Bolin's dusty clothing._

 _"Lot better than you, Mr. cool guy," Korra's nickname for his brother slipped out, and when Mako's eyebrows pulled together in a frown, Bolin tried to endear himself with a half-hearted grin._

 _Mako nodded once, and followed Bolin's line of sight to his left arm. He closed his eyes for a brief second, as if he had just noticed the ache settling in the skin and muscle tissue. When he opened them again, he looked sharply at his brother._

 _"We need to get out of here, and find Korra."_

 _It was such a Mako thing to say,_ "Find Korra", _like he hadn't almost lost his life in a freak explosion, and when Bolin stumbled out of their prison while supporting the weight of his only family, all he wanted at that moment was to drag his brother back to the safety of their metal bubble._

* * *

"Alright. Out with it, Bolin."

Mako's left arm was covered in clean white bandages ( _when had that happened?_ ) and he was awkwardly pulling his ratty t-shirt over his jet black hair with his good arm. His voice was muffled by the white fabric as he continued to talk.

"You've been acting weird ever since we got here," he pulled at his shirt to uncover his head. "And don't give me that look, you know what I'm talking about."

Bolin crossed his arms, vaguely aware of how childish it made him look. "It's nothing, Mako. Just let it go."

"You're obviously upset about something. Is it about Korra? Whatever's on your mind, I'm sure we can handle it."

Bolin hated arguing, especially with his brother. He would always try to avoid unnecessary confrontation, and he reserved violence only for the pro-bending arena. He simply wasn't a person to brood, or hold grudges. Instead, he would turn to his friends and family if he felt frustrated or sad. Their happiness was his happiness, and as long as he kept them close to him he could keep all those horrible memories and feelings at bay.

And yet...Mako's words catalyzed a horrid emotion inside Bolin that even their sweet ancient grandmother wouldn't be able to shut down.

"Handle it..." he echoed softly, and when he huffed out a laugh it almost bothered him how empty it sounded. "That's what you said, didn't you? _I can handle it._ "

Mako frowned, tilting his head to one side. "I'm not following, bro."

" _I'm just gonna zap some vines,"_ Bolin mocked angrily, waving his arms wildly. "Did you even _try_ to get out of there, like I asked you to? Because I'm starting to think that you didn't!"

"What the—I don't even know what the hell you're talking about!" Almost as quickly, Mako's temper flared too, and Bolin watched his brother struggling to keep his emotions in check.

Which, for a reason entirely unclear to him, made Bolin press harder.

"You didn't even think! I _told_ you I didn't approve, and you went ahead and did it anyway! You just had to prove yourself to Korra, didn't you?"

It was official. The lava monster inside Bolin had taken the reins of his self-control.

Mako stepped forward. The fingers of his right hand twisted into a fist. A dangerous sign, but Bolin wasn't about to back out now.

"There was no other way, Bolin. You _know_ that!"

"There's always another way, you were just being _selfish!"_

He literally had no idea where this was coming from.

"Selfish?! I was trying to protect you! I was trying to protect all of you, like I have always done! 'S not like you had any bright ideas to stop Kuvira!" Mako breathed out harshly, and if Bolin were to close his eyes he could almost imagine smoke coming out of the firebender's nostrils.

"I just did what I had to do, Bolin," Mako's voice was reduced to a hiss, his angry stare unwavering.

And perhaps that was the issue. His brother would always be prepared to sacrifice himself for the people he loved. Hell, even his entire childhood had been based on his principles; to keep his little brother safe despite Bolin's tendency to find trouble before trouble found him. Mako was loyal to a fault, ready to put his life on the line if it meant having someone's back, but he had repeatedly made it out unscathed thanks to skill and sheer luck.

Bolin had seen something different in his brother today, like the energy of the vines had peeled away at Mako's skin to reveal the heart of a traumatized eight-year old who never wanted to feel defenseless again. Someone who'd rather die honorably in battle than of a ripe old age.

Naturally, Mako would never allow Bolin to be included in that scenario. He must truly believe that Bolin hadn't been robbed of his innocence too, and that he had the strength to continue for the both of them.

How wrong he was. Bolin would never feel strong enough without his brother.

"You almost _died_ , Mako," He hated how his voice broke, hated the way an invisible hand seemed to grab hold of his lungs to steal away his oxygen. He despised how quickly his anger deflated, leaving him vulnerable when he needed stamina to get his point across. Today's fight wasn't a fight he was allowed to lose, not when the war was still raging outside.

The silence stretched on between them. Bolin didn't dare look up and instead focused all his energy on the flakes of dust littering his shoes. Mako sighed heavily. Bolin was almost positive his brother would leave.

Then, a heavy hand settled on Bolin's left shoulder, nearly making him jump. The pad of a thumb pressed into his collar bone with a comforting familiarity.

"I know what I did was reckless, and could have cost me my life." Mako scraped his throat quietly. "But I wasn't trying to prove myself, Bolin. I was trying to keep you save."

Bolin was still inspecting his toes. He was now very sure that his left foot was only a fraction bigger than his right, like Korra had teasingly pointed out to him. Mako's hand was still on his shoulder, and his brother shook him lightly, urging Bolin to look up. Bolin now switched his attention to Mako's feet. At least his stubbornness was still intact.

"Bo. Bolin. Look at me."

 _Fine._ He just _had_ to be the bigger person, didn't he?

The look on Mako's face startled him. It wasn't exasperation, nor annoyance—Bolin was usually on the receiving end of a healthy mix of both emotions. It was fondness that was pulling at the corner of Mako's lip, and without missing a beat, his brother pulled him closer into a firm embrace.

Bolin tensed, then gripped back just as tightly, his face buried against Mako's shoulder.

"Just promise me you'll never do something like that again, _ever_ , or spirits help me I'll send the Avatar after your sorry ass."

Mako hummed, a low rumble that reverberated in Bolin's chest.

"Promise."

* * *

 _"…I'm gonna zap these vines with some electricity." Mako's eyes were blazing as they reflected the purple light of the vines. As if in response to his words, the energy of the plant flared and electricity whirled in the air, missing them by an inch._

 _"Let's back it up, okay," Bolin stepped towards his brother, his nervous hands emphasizing his words. "I said_ that _will make the vines_ explode _."_  
 _  
"Exactly! This is our only way of shutting this thing down." Mako paused briefly, and glanced at the vine. " I can handle it."_

 _Fear started to grip Bolin's throat. "No, you can't!" he blurted out. Even with his voice raised, he could barely hear himself through the high-pitched hissing of the veins. "This isn't the time to prove how awesome you are! I already know how awesome you are. You're awesome." He added his last sentence for good measure._

 _Surely that would be enough to convince Mako that his plan sucked?_

 _Mako clenched his jaw, something he often did when he felt frustrated, worried, or both. "I don't have time to argue, I'm doing this. So get out of here."_

 _It wasn't often that Bolin won an argument. Today was no different._

 _Bolin blew out a breath through pursed lips, feeling his resolve crumble. "Okay, but for the record I do not approve. Just…get out as soon as you can. Promise?"_

 _Mako nodded once, clasping Bolin's outstretched hand._

 _"Promise."_

* * *

 **A/N:** Whew! Angry Bolin is nearly impossible to write, but simultaneously very interesting to explore. I've been wanting to fill in the gaps of this episode, so this would be my take on what could have happened. Hopefully this oneshot was slightly more realistic than that ginormous spirit-vine-powered metal blashpemy that Kuvira was able to create in a time where they barely had working electricity.  
For those who think Mako might be a little too emotional; I portrayed him this way because I never imagined him as someone completely incapable of showing worry/love/any other emotion beside anger. Looking at the show, we often see Mako as distant or reserved, but he has shown (in his own way) that he cares deeply for his brother and friends. However, he also has a tendency of taking his whole duty to protect a little too far, and while I don't think he wouldn't consciously become a martyr, I do believe that it has slowly become Bolin's job to look after him—and not the other way around.

That being said, please let me know what you think. Reviews are highly appreciated!


End file.
